Notre Dame paid Northern Illinois a whole lot to ruin their season

After beating Texas A&M last week, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish seemed destined for a bid in the College Football Playoff with a weak schedule ahead of them.

Despite playing a squad they were expected to beat, the program's fortunes changed dramatically in the wrong direction with a loss on Saturday.

As Joe Pompliano of The Joe Pompliano Show noted, "Notre Dame paid Northern Illinois $1.4 million to play them in South Bend."

The Northern Illinois Huskies, who are paying their head coach Thomas Haddock only $700,000 a year, have just disrupted the Irish who were feeling extremely high after last week's marquee win over Texas A&M in primetime.

Marcus Freeman's squad was expecting to win the game by double-dights as the program was a consensus 20+ favorite to win on most gambling sites.

Notre Dame is faced with picking up the pieces after the squad failed to stop the Huskies run or pass with both of these attacks nearly getting 200+ yards for the game.

Additionally, Leonard struggled to take care of the ball as the former Duke student-athlete threw two interceptions in the game.

As the Irish look to repair the rest of their season, it's important to note that they paid a lot of money for a team to ruin their entire season in one day.

How does the NIU upset impact Notre Dame's College Football Playoff hopes?

Considering the fact that the Fighting Irish are unable to win a conference title and play a extremely weak schedule going forward, the program is in serious jeopardy of missing the College Football Playoff. This comes despite the fact that Notre Dame seemingly clinched its spot in the playoff after last week's win over Texas A&M.

With the loss, the Irish will likely need to win out the rest of the way if Freeman and company want a chance at making the 12-team field. Yes, it's is an extremely early in the season but the program can't make any of the five auto-bids for the tournament due to the squad not being in the conference.